Cluff Natural Resources buys three North Sea oil licenses for 1 pound

Algy Cluff, the wily boss of Cluff Natural Resources (CLNR), has taken advantage of the oil price slump to sign an agreement to pay £1 to acquire a share of three North Sea licences that the company said offered the potential for 400m barrels of recoverable oil in the near-term.

Cluff has signed a heads of terms agreement with Verus Petroleum UK over the proposed acquisition of up to a 25% stake in Verus's three licences located in the Central North Sea and the Moray Firth.

Two of the licences are "effectively drill ready", the company said.

All three areas are operated by AIM-listed Parkmead Group, which has estimated the potential for 400m barrels of recoverable oil in aggregate.

CLNR initially plans to buy a 5% non-operated interest in Licences P1944 (Block 14/20e) and P2156 (Block 15/11 & 15/16f) located in the Outer Moray Firth, which contain the “Fynn” and “Penny” exploration prospects located below the shallow Tertiary sands that were found to contain heavy oil.

The AIM-listed company will, under the heads of terms, then be able to follow up with an exclusive option to increase its equity position in Licences P1944 and P2156 by 20% to 25% within a period of nine months following execution of the sale and purchase agreement for the acquisition of the initial 5% interest.

CLNR expects that a well on the Skerryvore and Fynn prospects will be drilled "within the next 12 to 24 months" to take advantage of the North Sea's current lower cost operating environment.

The proposed acquisition of course remains subject to a number of conditions, including government approval.

House broker Panmure Gordon pointed out that within its Parkmead valuation, it was carrying a risked US$5.5m of value for Skerryvore, which would equate to US$4.5m net to CLNR, assuming the transaction completes in full, or 1.4p per share.

Analyst Colin Smith has not as yet ascribed no value to Fynn or Penny in his valuation for Parkmead.

"CLNR continues to grow its North Sea presence over and above its current licence position in the Southern North Sea, in line with its strategy of taking advantage of current depressed industry conditions to pick up prospective licences at low cost."

Shares in Cluff, which earlier this month hit an all-time low of 1.5p, were up 1.3% on Wednesday to 1.9p.